NEW YORK (IPS)�Tokyo
Sexwale, former premier of Gauteng Province, which includes
Johannesburg, had planned to be on the New York Stock Exchange balcony
when former South African President Nelson Mandela rang the opening bell
May 9.
Instead, he watched the launch ceremony of Gold Fields
Ltd., a mining company of which he is an officer, from its Johannesburg
head office on a satellite link because the U.S. consulate was unable to
process his visa in time.
Mr. Sexwale, a non-executive director of Gold Fields,
and chairman of Mvelaphanda Holdings, the only Black-controlled
resources company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, was denied quick
visa approval apparently because of his 13 years of internment, along
with Mr. Mandela, on Robben Island, for his opposition to White rule.
Mr. Sexwale is the only Black on the otherwise all-White
directors� board of Gold Fields Ltd.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Judy Moon confirmed that a visa
for Mr. Sexwale had been delayed under an Immigration Act provision
requiring a special waiver for a visitor with a record of serious crime.
She said Mr. Sexwale�s visa application had fallen under a 1952
Immigration Act provision, adding that the ANC was not listed as a
terrorist organization.
Messrs. Sexwale and Mandela were among thousands of
Blacks jailed for their militant opposition to three centuries of White
minority rule, which ended when Mr. Mandela became president in 1994.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said the existing
provision in U.S. law should be updated. "I would not imagine that the
U.S. government would want to place restrictions on the entry of a
Nelson Mandela, but that is what it means," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mbeki�s ruling African National Congress
(ANC) slammed the U.S. action as an "embarrassing anomaly."
"The country�s immigration policies and practices
victimize visitors from South Africa who were imprisoned in the course
of a just struggle against the apartheid system," the ANC said May 10 in
a weekly newsletter, calling for an apology to Mr. Sexwale. "This kind
of treatment flies in the face of the good relations that exist between
South Africa and the United States."
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that
although government was aware of the practice during apartheid, South
Africa had been unaware that the United States had continued to treat
ANC members as suspected terrorists until a "prominent" South African
such as Tokyo Sexwale fell victim.
Officials at the U.S. embassy in Pretoria have not
issued a comment on the matter but say they are in touch with Washington
to find out what had happened.
The ANC said it was "unacceptable that ANC members who
spent years in apartheid prisons for legitimate actions against an
unjust system should be victimized in this manner." The party�s chief
spokesman, Smuts Ngonyama, said the ANC took exception at the
"embarrassing anomaly."
Mr. Ngonyama said it was significant to note that Mr.
Mandela, whom Mr. Sexwale was due to join in the United States
yesterday, was himself convicted of a "serious crime" and spent years on
Robben Island. Mr. Sexwale spent 13 years on Robben Island.
It was on Robben Island that former President Bill
Clinton, during a state visit to South Africa, paid tribute to ANC
freedom fighters, Mr. Ngonyama said.
Perhaps even more ironic, he said, was the fact that the
international community regarded apartheid as a crime against humanity,
"yet those people who fought against it continue to be subject to
official harassment by U.S. authorities."
The U.S. is South Africa�s biggest trading partner.
Since 1994, annual trade between the two countries has increased almost
400 percent. There are about 400 U.S. companies in South Africa.
Photo caption:
Tokyo Sexwale
